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Joined: 03 January 2004
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In this thread, we discuss weird findings with meteor's engine that can be potentially used/abused to create somethings that were not meant to happen in meteor but we can do it anyway, I'll start by listing a bunch of things that I have used in mods of mine:
Hard to destroy Tiles: Meteor WW3 - Making 6 or seven tiles of the same material, and making every corresponding tile look slightly more damaged that the previous. Make the first tile's destroyed tile the next tile that looks slightly more damaged, then make that tile's destroyed tile the slightly more damaged one, then continue until you get to the final destroyed tile that is land.
-1 Projectile sighting: Meteor WW3 - Any unit other than the player that uses a weapon with a projectile that has -1 speed, the bullet line is displayed followed with the projectile sprite right at the tip of the gun. (This was used to create fake muzzle flashes when enemy units attacked the player)
Ambient Noises 1: Meteor WW3 - Message triggers have an option to be converted to play soundfx when activated. Place these message triggers anywhere in the map, the player may accidentally walk over it and play background noise. (You could hear police sirens and car crashes in the background of Serenity City)
Attack Triggers: Meteor WW3 - Creating a unit that is allied and has a tiny amount of health with a sprite that is entirely magic pink, which will render it invisible in-game, though enemy units will still see it, and attack in its direction (This was used to make Big Mechs appear to shoot the walls of buildings they were trapped inside to escape, a more obvious use of this trick was used in my map "Caughtyard" where allied rocket troopers fired at an enemy laser turret conveniently placed near destroyable tiles so as to break you out of a prison cell)
Ambient Noises 2 (better): Crater - Similar to the attack triggers, create a sprite that is invisible by making it completely magic pink, in the sprite editor, assign it a looping sound effect.
Land Mines: Crater - If you make a tile's special trigger to "trigger explosions at link tile" and make the Used Tile, and Link Tile the same tile, walking over it will trigger an explosion to itself, damaging the player. It does 30 damage.
Fast Moving Land Enemies: Crater - Units that have the AI type of a helicopter are the fastest moving enemies that meteor can make. They are only slightly slower than the player. If you set their altitude to 0, they glide along the ground and cast no shadow, making them appear to be land units. But keep them away from water because they will go right over it. Solid tiles keep them at bay though. (This was used for the orange Elite Alien)
Animated Doors: Mankind - Similar to the "Hard to Destroy" tiles, except using special door triggers instead.
Units in Attack Position: Mankind - In the Race editor, all unit's "Still Sprites" are only used when the unit stops to attack a target. The still sprites are also used when placed in the Map Editor, so it looks kinda weird, but looks excellent in game. (That's how the shotgun zombies were able to crouch down, shoot, and pump their shotgun when the player was in range, this was also abused to create the Assailant's beam attack.)
Breakable Glass: Mankind - Make a 'glass tile' (Solid, appears clean and untouched), a 'damaged glass tile' (Solid, appears very cracked) and a 'shattered glass tile' (Land, appears to be just glass shards on the floor) Make the 'damaged glass tile' a door, with it's used tile being the 'shattered glass tile'. then make the 'glass tile's' destroyed tile the 'damaged glass tile' That way when you encounter a glass wall, it is solid until you fire at it. Then you can walk through it, breaking the glass, similar to Half Life 2 and Counterstrike Source. You can make the door activation sound like broken glass too for added effect.
Discard Weapon when out of ammo: Mankind - In the player character editor, if you make a weapon mount's ammo item and weapon item the same thing, the player will use the weapon until its out of ammo, and dissappear from his inventory once it's used up. Only downside is when you are out of ammo, the message displayed will be something along the lines of "No Pistols for Pistol" (This was used for the chainsaw in Mankind)
Here are some other things that I am currently testing to see if they can be used:
Short Range Explosive Weapons - Projectiles typically dissappear if they reach their range without making contact with something, however, a projectile that has the "grenade bounce" property explodes whenever it reaches its range.
Splashing Water - This is still being tested, though I'm testing water that is swimmable. There's one water tile that is land, with 3 more identical tiles. The first tile is just water that is land and can be walked on. The second tile is also land, though also has a door advanced tile property, it's used tile is the third water tile, and activated sound is a *SPLASH*. The third tile has no properties that are any different than the first tile. the fourth tile also looking like water, has the property that turns into to it's used tile, and all link tiles to the used link tile. It's used tile itself, the link tile is the third tile, and the used link tile is the second tile. To use this, the second water tile would have to be placed all along the borders of the body of water, and the fourth tile dotted all around the inside of the body of water. This way, when you enter the water, you hear a splash once. When you are inside the water, the water that makes the splash sound is reset so it can make the splash again. That way you hear a splash whenever you enter or exit the water. An animated splash would be cool too, currently trying to figure out how to incorporate that.
Map Hubs - Being able to exit a level, and go back to the level you previously came from. Start by making "map1A". Lets say the player start is on the west side of the map, and the exit is on the east, exiting to "map2". Save "map1A" when it's completed, then edit it by moving the player start position near where the exit is. Save it as "map1B". Finish making "map2", then give it two exits. The first exit should exit to "map1B" and placed directly behind the player start position, and the second exit, at the opposite end of the level, should exit to "map3" The player will be able to exit map1, but still be able to go back to map1 whenever the player desires.
Flamethrower Animation - I haven't been able to perfect it yet, but I made something like it accidentally in M2. But if a weapon has a particular fire interval, and the projectile has a particular speed and very short range, the projectile doesn't appear to go anywhere, and just appears stagnant in front of the gun when firing, which can be used to create an animated flame thrower. I'll post again when I find out the correct values.
If anyone else has found out weird stuff Meteor can do that can be used/abused in future mods, please share. I encourage everyone to play around with meteors editors, test the limits of the game. Plug in values you've never used before in all the editors. Share your results!
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Edited: 29 August 2009 18:33
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. Funny thing is that i dont recognize some of them 
